I just looked at the SR-5004 manual, but couldn't figure out the following:

1. Is it possible to adjust the level of input sources relative to each other?
2. Is it possible to delete unused sources?
3. Can the Audyssey EQ settings be adjusted manually? If yes, will Dynamic EQ still work after the adjustment?
4. Can Dynamic EQ settings be adjusted for each source individually?
5. If I select Dolby PLIIx for music, will Audyssey MultEQ/Dynamic EQ still be engaged?

Well, after all these failure reports, should I still look into buying an SR-5004? Any good alternatives?

If you have center and/or surround speakers set to "OFF", the receiver silently forces on dynamic range compression for Dolby Digital signals. It is possible to work around this if the source can decode to multichannel PCM, but for S/PDIF Marantz is just unable to reproduce the full dynamic range.

Very frustrating with a 4.1 setup, especially as I like the features Marantz has and sound quality for other than DD signals.

I just looked at the SR-5004 manual, but couldn't figure out the following:

1. Is it possible to adjust the level of input sources relative to each other?
2. Is it possible to delete unused sources?
3. Can the Audyssey EQ settings be adjusted manually? If yes, will Dynamic EQ still work after the adjustment?
4. Can Dynamic EQ settings be adjusted for each source individually?
5. If I select Dolby PLIIx for music, will Audyssey MultEQ/Dynamic EQ still be engaged?

Well, after all these failure reports, should I still look into buying an SR-5004? Any good alternatives?

The 6004 sounds awesome, but I would personally hold off on getting a 5004 or 6004 until we get a more definitive response from Marantz on why so many are just dying. If you do get one (i really enjoy the 6004 that is still working), I highly recommend you get it from a local dealer who will honor a 30 day no questions asked return policy. All of my bad units died within 30 days. In all likelihood, you should know if you have a bad unit within 30 days.

You mean "so much for the Marantz **04 receivers". I can understand you writing off anything to do with Marantz after this (especially Winston), but I hope that in your anger, you don't try to put the company in a bad light when others inquire of its quality because of your experience with a particular model. I so hope you find something that works for you.

You mean "so much for the Marantz **04 receivers". I can understand you writing off anything to do with Marantz after this (especially Winston), but I hope that in your anger, you don't try to put the company in a bad light when others inquire of its quality because of your experience with a particular model. I so hope you find something that works for you.

You have it wrong. Why would I be angry at an object? It has no motive, though I will admit that I am extremely disappointed. It sounded so sweet! That is for sure. I'm disappointed in its failure, but anger? Nope. That would be a complete waste of my energy.

Now, you are correct in this: I would love to write off the 5004, but, I'm not going to be able to do that. The people I bought this from are willing to exchange, but not give my money back. So, I will box this bad boy up and ship it out on Monday. SR 5004: Take Two, coming up.

Now, one another thing is also true. After my friends unit popped, after winston's multiple Pops, and my single pop and die, I do question Marantz's build quality on these 04 receivers. I wouldn't recommend them to a friend again. I'll just say that! And now, it is time to move on to my next 5004 receiver. *Crosses his fingers*

I've been following the issues surrounding the 'xx04' models for a couple of months now - basically since they came out. I would love to get a 6004 but I'm waiting to hear a couple of things:

1) an acknowledgement from the company that there is an issue with the models
2) that they have resolved the issue.

I understand that you can't take everything serious when reviewing messages on a message board but at the same time, I think the evidence is compelling and I would trust posters at this site a lot more than another site.

I've been following Marantz reviews and products for several months now and the company seems committed to their products, I hope this issue can be resolved and I hope the company can get back to making great products, til then I'm not planning on making any purchases.

I've been following the issues surrounding the 'xx04' models for a couple of months now - basically since they came out. I would love to get a 6004 but I'm waiting to hear a couple of things:

1) an acknowledgement from the company that there is an issue with the models
2) that they have resolved the issue.

I understand that you can't take everything serious when reviewing messages on a message board but at the same time, I think the evidence is compelling and I would trust posters at this site a lot more than another site.

I've been following Marantz reviews and products for several months now and the company seems committed to their products, I hope this issue can be resolved and I hope the company can get back to making great products, til then I'm not planning on making any purchases.

I have been calling Marantz for over two months about this issue and just now have got some real response other than "it's your setup."

The Marantz SR6004 is an awesome receiver - to the point i endured four failures and still have one in use today. I am happy to provide receipts if there is any doubt of these issues. There is definitely something wrong with SOME of these units - both 5004 and 6004 that is causing catastrophic failure for no reason or warning sign.

The best thing Marantz can do at this point is what I asked them to do when my first unit died back in September - pull apart the dead unit and see what's dying - is it a bad capacitor - a bad thermoster that thinks it's hot - or is it something bad in the output section that's causing the pop of death.

The thing that frustrates me the most is that Marantz holds itself out as a specialty company that is a step above a denon, yamaha or onkyo. They do not mass distribute their players and need to recognize and rectify problems for customers like myself who have spent nearl $3K on Marantz products this year with very poor results - a blu ray player that freezes and receivers that die

I've heard marantz receivers are pretty good to listening music and not so good for movies.. but what do you think saying this?
are improved bass and trebles? mid range is a bit lower? or is weak with effects (rain, storms, slamming door)?
thankx

You have it wrong. Why would I be angry at an object? It has no motive

I figured you would react typically..guess I was wrong. The fact is that when most people have problems with products, they like to give up completely on not just the product, but ANYTHING the company makes, and do whatever they can to spread the fact that they had a problem and you shouldn't buy anything from them.

so even thought i've heard of the problems, i decided to get a sr6004 (over the NADT755 -- the NAD sounded a bit warmer, but it was the audussey and 1080p upconvert of the marantz that won me over). i can't wait till my installer finishes tomorrow and i get my in wall monitor audio's paired. i've been playing with the sr6004 for about a week and have no issues to date.

here, i really just want to say hello. this is a great forum and i hope to give back once i really get around the sr6004.

don't really want to comment on sound quality till i get my good speakers paired.

functionality, i'm pretty happy but don't really need much. i just want to listen to great sounding music, watch sports, and a movie here and there. the only thing i wish the marantz did at this point is link the volume and input switching of main and zone A (i feel the best sound is the "direct", but that option turns off the sub woofer pre out so i get no sub woofer -- my thouught was to use zone A for the sub but if i do that i have to manually change the volume and input selection of both zones and it's annoying so that worn't work.)

i'll be watching this post often and hope i can give back. thanks.... d

so even thought i've heard of the problems, i decided to get a sr6004 (over the NADT755 -- the NAD sounded a bit warmer, but it was the audussey and 1080p upconvert of the marantz that won me over). i can't wait till my installer finishes tomorrow and i get my in wall monitor audio's paired. i've been playing with the sr6004 for about a week and have no issues to date.

here, i really just want to say hello. this is a great forum and i hope to give back once i really get around the sr6004.

don't really want to comment on sound quality till i get my good speakers paired.

functionality, i'm pretty happy but don't really need much. i just want to listen to great sounding music, watch sports, and a movie here and there. the only thing i wish the marantz did at this point is link the volume and input switching of main and zone A (i feel the best sound is the "direct", but that option turns off the sub woofer pre out so i get no sub woofer -- my thouught was to use zone A for the sub but if i do that i have to manually change the volume and input selection of both zones and it's annoying so that worn't work.)

i'll be watching this post often and hope i can give back. thanks.... d

One thing is for certain. The sound quality on your unit is going to be superb.

the only thing i wish the marantz did at this point is link the volume and input switching of main and zone A (i feel the best sound is the "direct", but that option turns off the sub woofer pre out so i get no sub woofer -- my thouught was to use zone A for the sub but if i do that i have to manually change the volume and input selection of both zones and it's annoying so that worn't work.)

If redirecting all the low frequencies to the sub is important to you, you might want to reconsider how your sub is integrated with your other speakers: do the low frequency audio management in the subwoofer instead of in the receiver.

Some sub amplifiers are available which are designed so they can be put in series with the main L/R speakers. They have high-impedance speaker-level inputs and outputs. Low pass filters extract the subwoofer's frequencies and corresponding high-pass filters send the higher frequencies to the main speakers. The receiver is then configured for full-range front speakers and no LFE speaker, so that LFE is redirected to what it thinks are the fronts.

Hi all! Just wanted to let everyone know that I own a Marantz SR6004 since the day it came out in The Netherlands (5th of september 2009... a beautiful day!)... and I'm loving it so far! It is really excellent. I have it hooked up to a pair of Focal 716W's and a Panasonic TX-P42V10. As input devices I mostly use my (just new :P) Popcorn Hour C-200 and a Humax IRHD 5000c settop box. And so far... it is really excellent! It does everything I want and it sounds amazing! :-)

I have read all 16 pages... and there seem to be some people with problems. But I have it up and running for at least 4 hours every day and never had any problems (the pop of death :P). So, sure... some people are unlucky, but I'm pretty sure there are also enough units out there without any problems. Like mine (so far, knock on wood! :P).

If redirecting all the low frequencies to the sub is important to you, you might want to reconsider how your sub is integrated with your other speakers: do the low frequency audio management in the subwoofer instead of in the receiver.

Some sub amplifiers are available which are designed so they can be put in series with the main L/R speakers. They have high-impedance speaker-level inputs and outputs. Low pass filters extract the subwoofer's frequencies and corresponding high-pass filters send the higher frequencies to the main speakers. The receiver is then configured for full-range front speakers and no LFE speaker, so that LFE is redirected to what it thinks are the fronts.

thanks shelden. yes that is how my sub is designed and i just hooked it up that way last night. this definitely solves my problem. from a sound quality, it feels this sounds tighter than having the sub connected via lfe. shelden, is there a way to configure the fronts for full-range?

thanks shelden. yes that is how my sub is designed and i just hooked it up that way last night. this definitely solves my problem. from a sound quality, it feels this sounds tighter than having the sub connected via lfe.

I'm glad it helped.

Quote:

shelden, is there a way to configure the fronts for full-range?

I'm not sure what you mean:
a. have low frequencies come both from the front speakers and the sub (so you can run with just the fronts for music, and/or with low frequencies boosted when both are in use), or
b. configure the receiver to treat the fronts+sub as full-range speakers.

To do the former (a), wire the fronts directly to the receiver and then run additional speaker cables from the fronts to the sub. That way the fronts get the full-bandwidth signal directly from the receiver, unfiltered by the sub's crossovers.

Driving full-range speakers from the receiver has two issues that need to be considered, although they might be unimportant for your situation.

First, this configuration might cause some audible problems when both fronts and sub are in use, since the natural low frequency roll-off of the front speakers usually is not so well matched to the high-frequency roll-off in the sub's crossovers. Some subs have adjustable crossovers, though.

Another issue is that the receiver would have to provide more power in the lower frequencies when driving the fronts. Having the sub first, so its crossover keeps the low frequencies from getting to the fronts, means that the receiver has more "headroom." More power is available for the receiver to drive the upper register, since the sub uses its own amp.

For the latter (b), that depends on the receiver you have. It's just the usual full-range setting in one of its speaker configuration tables. The receiver can't tell that you're using a sub that way. So far as it's concerned, you simply have high quality, full-range front speakers and no LFE speaker.

p.s. If you re-run the Audyssey calibration, then you shouldn't have to change anything in the receiver. It'll set the speakers correctly.

I'm glad it helped. I'm not sure what you mean:
a. have low frequencies come both from the front speakers and the sub (so you can run with just the fronts for music, and/or with low frequencies boosted when both are in use), or
b. configure the receiver to treat the fronts+sub as full-range speakers.

To do the former (a), wire the fronts directly to the receiver and then run additional speaker cables from the fronts to the sub. That way the fronts get the full-bandwidth signal directly from the receiver, unfiltered by the sub's crossovers.

Driving full-range speakers from the receiver has two issues that need to be considered, although they might be unimportant for your situation.

First, this configuration might cause some audible problems when both fronts and sub are in use, since the natural low frequency roll-off of the front speakers usually is not so well matched to the high-frequency roll-off in the sub's crossovers. Some subs have adjustable crossovers, though.

Another issue is that the receiver would have to provide more power in the lower frequencies when driving the fronts. Having the sub first, so its crossover keeps the low frequencies from getting to the fronts, means that the receiver has more "headroom." More power is available for the receiver to drive the upper register, since the sub uses its own amp.

For the latter (b), that depends on the receiver you have. It's just the usual full-range setting in one of its speaker configuration tables. The receiver can't tell that you're using a sub that way. So far as it's concerned, you simply have high quality, full-range front speakers and no LFE speaker.

p.s. If you re-run the Audyssey calibration, then you shouldn't have to change anything in the receiver. It'll set the speakers correctly.

yes i did run the audyssey calibration. therefore i can assume that because the calibration didn't recognize a sub (which is what i expected as my sub is connected via the front left and right speaker out on my marantz), that the receiver automatically sends the full range to the front left and right.

yes i did run the audyssey calibration. therefore i can assume that because the calibration didn't recognize a sub (which is what i expected as my sub is connected via the front left and right speaker out on my marantz), that the receiver automatically sends the full range to the front left and right.

That's what it's supposed to do.

Some discs include speaker setup chapters, especially the ones that are THX certified. They send separate sounds to each of the 5.1 channels for testing. That would let you verify that the .1 (LFE) channel is being redirected properly.

Some discs include speaker setup chapters, especially the ones that are THX certified. They send separate sounds to each of the 5.1 channels for testing. That would let you verify that the .1 (LFE) channel is being redirected properly.

So I've been listen to my new marantz all day, going between the different sound settings. Just curious what you guys are hearing.

So I know a lot of this is subjective but I'm curious, compared to Direct/Pure Sound, how do you guys like the other surround music settings? and Why?

I seem to have gravated to Neo6 Music. (so i'm just listening to the same music back and forth between Neo6 Music and Direct Sound) At the higher volume levels, direct sound appears more pleasing -- i seem to hear more, and the sound stage seems more dynamic. But at the medium and lower levels, i think i like the Neo6 Music more -- music voices seem to be seperated better, more dynamic and there doesn't appear to be any loss of info. i'm sure some of this is due to the Audyssey EQ settings which I have on (so they are not in affect for direct sound) and haven't changed from the auto setup.